Search

articles on

Commitment is a key factor of the learning process and to evolve in whatever you are doing. I believe there's only way to commit to something, it's to do it repeatedly until it becomes natural. Focus, learn, repeat. Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple has been doing that everyday for the past 8 years. He has been creating an artwork every single day and the result is nothing short of amazing.
Beeple is Mike Winkelmann, a graphic designer from Appleton, Wisconsin, USA. His short films have screened at onedotzero, Prix Ars Electronica, the Sydney Biennale, Ann Arbor Film Festival and many others. He has also released a series of Creative Commons live visuals that have been used by electronic acts such as deadmau5, Taio Cruz, Tiësto, Amon Tobin, Wolfgang Gartner, Flying Lotus and many others. He currently releases work on Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder imprint.
I'm on my eighth consecutive year of everydays (haven't missed a day!) and this year I'll be doing a render everyday using Cinema 4D and mostly Octane, but will also be incorporating Houdini, Worldmachine, 3DCoat, Daz3D, Fusion360, Moi3D and more!!! :)
For more information, check out http://www.beeple-crap.com/

Signalstarr aka Nick Stewart Hoyle is a graphic artist based in London, UK. His work reminds me a lot of the inspired mid 80s retro art like Pink Floyd and OMNI Magazine. I love his play with the mixture of washed textures and overlays. Check him out!
All Rights to Signalstarr
All Rights to Signalstarr
All Rights to Signalstarr
All Rights to Signalstarr
All Rights to Signalstarr
All Rights to Signalstarr
All Rights to Signalstarr
All Rights to Signalstarr
All Rights to Signalstarr
All Rights to Signalstarr
All Rights to Signalstarr
All Rights to Signalstarr
Links
More about Signalstarr: http://signalstarr.com
Follow Signalstarr on Instagram: https://instagram.com/signalstarr

I love retro futuristic artwork, it has been my favorite style since the beginning of my career and it's always cool to see more people exploring that. Today I share the work done by the Sense Collective for their new chapter, the Chapter V - "Retro".
We present our ensuing chapter, titled "Retro". Inspired by the Retro futuristic art of Syd Mead. Within this chapter we wanted to realize the old-world society's views/interpretations of the future, sci-fi and distant modernism
Sense is an aspiring collective filled with talented artists. They've been able to work with truly interesting people. When it comes to design, they judge success by the number of people positively touched by their work. Craftsmanship plays a big role, of course, but in the end design should make people happy or, at the very least, not to upset them.
Sense On:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sense.Collective
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/SenseDigitalArt
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/sensecollective
Behance: https://www.behance.net/SenseDesign

I love neon style illustrations, especially the light effects created by the blue and pink color tones. The work of Patrick Seymour created for Undiz exemplifies this in mixing more handcrafted typography. The combination of both retro and modern results in a style that is super appealing to the naked eye.
Patrick Seymour is an art director from Montreal, Canada. For more information visit http://cargocollective.com/patrickseymour

If you like retro logos with light effects that screen the 80's you going to love this post. It's an overview of some of the 80's inspired logos done by Italian designers Alessandro Strickner and Overglow. Enjoy!
For more from Alessandro Strickner visit behance.net/strickner & for more from Overglow visit behance.net/overglow.

These awesome Retro Futuristic Illustrations are done by Nathan Schroeder. A mix of geometric shapes and photography with a nostalgia feel that makes it retro but at the same time it seems like something from the future, needless to say I love the style. Check it out!
For more from Nathan Schroeder visit cargocollective.com/nthn and flickr.com/photos/nthns/.

The collection called "Extra Ball" was inspired by the Baimu's childhood in game centers and specifically in the Pinball machines , claiming the culture of classic games before the advent of video games. Baimu is a Graphic designer based in Barcelona. He loves typography and illustration and to mix them. He's been working as graphic designer since 2002.
Those machines with colored lights, the loud music and especially the feeling of success when you managed the ball into the "chrome rails" for that sailed smoothly and you multiplied the score or even gave you an extra ball, that feeling is what I wanted to convey with a volumetric numbers and turn consist of soft metal bends. I like to compare the creative process, the feeling you have when you are designing or illustrating something and it suddenly occurs to you a better and more powerful idea, an "extra ball" mental;-)
For more information visit: https://www.behance.net/baimu

Getting into the spirit of the season, we felt timely to showcase Coca-Cola's vintage holiday ads. Coca-Cola's ubiquitous advertising has greatly impacted American culture and the seminal brand is frequently credited with inventing the modern image of Santa Claus. Haddon Sundblom, an American Artist who made an indelible mark on 20th century advertising art, is best remembered for illustrating the now iconic winter ad campaigns he painted for the Coca-Cola Company in the 1930s. Catching a glimpse of imagery that lives on in the minds of people of all ages, around the globe, we hope this post brings a smile to your face and evokes pleasant memories this holiday season.
According to the Coca-Cola company "For inspiration, Sundblom turned to Clement Clark Moore's 1822 poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (commonly called "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"). Moore's description of St. Nick led to an image of Santa that was warm, friendly, pleasantly plump and human. For the next 33 years, Sundblom painted portraits of Santa that helped to create the modern image of Santa – an interpretation that today lives on in the minds of people of all ages, all over the world."
Sundblom is recognized as a major influence on many well known pin-up artists, such as Gil Elvgren, Edward Runci, Joyce Ballantyne, Art Frahm, and Harry Ekman. In the mid-1930s, he began to paint pin-ups and glamour pieces for calendars. Sundblom's last assignment, in 1972, was a cover painting for Playboy's Christmas issue.

This is a classic photography series shot by British photographer Peter Aylward at the Silverstone Classic 2013. If you into fast cars and classic photos, this series will bring a great nostalgia feeling to your day. Enjoy!
For more from Peter Aylward visit .peteraylward.co.uk.

Zoran Lucić is a graphic designer from Bosnia who loves soccer just as much as I do. He designed a big series of soccer player posters with a retro feeling to it, mixed with typography and collage that looks absolutely amazing. Zoran seems to have a great taste for the game as he picked the top players of all eras. Take a look and see if you can find your favorite player.
For more from Zoran visit behance.net/zoranlucic or follow him on twitter @zoranlucic.

I like to spend my time browsing Behance, DeviantArt, Dribbble and other websites to see what people are doing. I used to do that back in the 90s and early 2000s with books, going to bookstores and just browsing through design books and magazines tirelessly. The web made this process easier in terms of the amount of information and talent we can draw inspiration from but more difficult when it comes to seeking quality. Some works simply stand out among the rest. That's the case of Giampaolo Miraglia illustrations.
Giampaolo is an art director and graphic designer based in Rome. His work mixes geometric 3D renderings with a nice retro style.
VOID
OLYMPIC GAMES 2012
No Man's Land
HYPER SPORTS
For more information visit http://www.giampaolomiraglia.com/

We post about new digital artists and designers most of the time, we also post about different styles and how designers and artists try to bring references from the past and adapt for the needs of the present. Last week I read that the Mad Men crew got magazine illustrating guru Brian Sanders, a 75-year-old artist now living in Cambridge, England—to illustrate the iconic poster. With that in mind, nothing like feature another amazing illustrator from the 60s, Tom McNeely.
Born in Toronto in 1935, Tom McNeely studied with two prominent Canadian artists before setting off on his own highly successful career. His distinctively-styled portraits of some of the world's most famous personalities have been featured in numerous museums, and his paintings for Canada's Expo '67 and the 1976 Olympics brought him worldwide fame.
MacLean's magazine
Chatelaine magazine
Publication unknown
McClelland & Stewart Publishers
"Philatelic 1st Day Covers for Canadian and American Postage Stamps, 1978-2006"
McClelland & Stewart
MacLean's magazine
"Before I begin to paint, I immerse myself in my subject. I learn all I can about the person and the age when he lived. Only then, when I feel completely familiar with the subject -- almost as if I can see him firsthand -- do I begin a work of art."
Chatelaine magazine
Chatelaine magazine
Canadian Magazine
McNeely's paintings of Golda Meir, Muhammed Ali and Cardinal Leger have been proudly featured in books about these great world leaders, and they have won McNeely lasting acclaim. Other works include stunning portraits of celebrities from the 1950s like Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, as well as noted American composers, conductors and folk singers. He has also created spectacular paintings featuring Diana, Princess of Wales. Via http://www.unicover.com/

We have been huge fans and followers of James White since the very beginning of Abduzeedo. James is such an inspiring person not only because of his immense talent but also his attitude in terms of trying to keep experimenting and evolving. The new series of illustrations he's been posting lately exemplifies this and deserves to be featured here.
James words
After a year of trying to break into the alternative art movie poster world, a recent development was the straw that broke the camel's back where I decided I needed a change in direction.
When I feel like I'm backed into a corner I tend to do what I've always done: I start to play. I wanted to try a new style with new content. Nothing profound, just a fun distraction. What resulted in a very short time were these illustrations of video game consoles and stuff from movies. Very different from my rainbow stuff or movie poster work.
I'm an advocate of analyzing your personal creative process and not being scared to tear it to ribbons, so this is what I'm doing. The base shapes were built in Illustrator and all effects/texture work was done in Photoshop. I've wanted to try this illustration style for some time, influenced by the likes of Saul Bass, Tom Clohosy Cole and Pixar's conceptual team. No time like the present.
Gotta keep having fun, right?
For more information about James White visit http://blog.signalnoise.com/

For this week's tutorial I will share something new that I am still trying to learn how to do it. It's the retro/futuristic/geometric illustration style I've been seeing more and more often. This illustration is inspired by the work of Justin Mezzell, Matthew Lyons and Dan Matutina. I also see that James White has been experimenting with this style as well. In my case I will try to share a simple and easy way to achieve the style using Illustrator and Photoshop. As it is my first attempt, bear with me and let me know if you have any tips to improve it.
So in this tutorial I will show you how to create a Retro Futuristic Illustration using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I won't add a lot of details on how to create the shapes, it's more like a simple walkthrough on how I create the illustration.
Step 1
Open Illustrator and start creating the composition. As I am learning I used an old illustration for reference so I could understand exactly what give the illustration the style I want. In this case the vanishing points, perspective and very geometric forms are the secret. I started creating everything in greyscale. Once I had the basic objects I moved to the color part.
Step 2
Another important thing was to understand the color palette that would give the effect I wanted. Once again, I got one illustration from Justin Mezzell and start using some of the colors he used to see If I could achieve the same effect.
Step 3
After coloring, it was time to add some dimensionality to the image. The first and most important thing is the use of hard shadows. Most of these designs are inspired by old ads and architecture illustrations where hard shadows were vey common. To create the basic shadows I used black at 10% with Multiply for the Blend Mode. I also added some frames for the windows to create the 3D effect.
Step 4
To increase a little bit more the realism I added some subtle gradients as you can see in the image below. For the gradient colors I used white and black at 10% with multiply for the opacity.
Step 5
To create the clouds I used basic circles and pathfinder to unite them into one object. After that I apply the same subtle gradient. One I had a basic cloud, I started duplicating it and playing with sizes and angles.
Step 6
For the car it was pretty much the same thing, just some angular shapes, not using curves at all. At this point I had understood a little bit more of geometric illustraitons so I started deviating from the original illustration I was using for reference. Notice the reflection on the windows, that was a really nice touch that I saw in the work of Justin Mezzell as well.z
Step 7
Time to go to Photoshop to add some effects. Copy the composition from Illustrator and paste it in Photoshop. I am using 2880x1800 for the size.
Step 8
I always paste vectors as Smart Objects, so I can always tweak them without destroying everything. So the first thing to do is go to Filter>Filter Gallery>Difuse Glow. Use the values below to add some nice grain to the image.
Step 9
Duplicate the layer and then go to Filter>Filter Gallery>Brush Strokes>Angled Strokes. Use the values in the image below. The idea here is to add some brush deformations. The best thing would be do that by hand, but for the tutorial we will stick to filters.
Step 10
Reduce the opacity of the layer with the angled strokes to 80% with Lighten for the Blend Mode.
Step 11
With the Brush Tool (B) and a very soft brush, paint a nice orange spot to create a sunset effect. I used Overlay for the Blend Mode at 100%
Step 12
Duplicat the illustraiton layer and then go to Filter>Distort>Mezzotint. Use Fine Dots.
Step 13
Go to Image>Adjustmetns>Desaturate. Then change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge. You will have something like the image belowl.
Step 14
Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels. Reduce the white input levels to 100 or a bit more. The goal here is to make the light grains almost invisible.
Step 15
With the Eraser Tool (E) you can delete some areas of the grain layer to make it less strong. I tried to hide the grains on the lighter areas and make it visible on the dark ones.
Conclusion
You can also do the same as the previous steps for the dark grains to create another layer with lighter grains. It will make the effect a little bit better and more real. Your design after this will be pretty much done and as I said, it was the first time I tried something like this. I am still learning and it is up to you to take it from here and make it perfect. If you do so, share with us, we would love to see what you can come up with.
Download Photoshop file
Download the Photoshop file used for this tutorial

We are fan of vector illustrations, especially because of the clean lines and sometimes geometric shapes. Lately we've been noticing more and more designers experimenting with vectors mixed with textures. The cool thing about this is that it gives an incredible style to the illustrations, and when you add to that some super creative ideas you will probably have something similar to the work of Justin Mezzell.
I am now a huge fan of Justin, his work is nothing less than amazing. It brings me back some sort of this retro/futuristic vibe. Besides that his color palettes are always beautiful. To illustrate that we selected some of our favorite Justin's illustrations.
Justin Mezzell is an illustrator and designer currently based in Orlando, Florida. A graduate of the University of Central Florida, he specializes in illustration, digital art, and UI/UX design. Additional samples from other bodies of work can be found below.
For more information visit http://justinmezzell.com/
Fortune Magazine
These Movies Are Old
MEN'S HEALTH
THE THIEF
LIFTOFF
OLD & NEW

If Social Media was built in the days of DOS, 14.4 Kbps modems and Netscape Navigator, they would have looked very different. Well Kinna McInroe and Jo Luijten made this ambition from the past into a reality. This reality truly became a sensation and some of these videos were broadcasted on television and in the Nitehawk Cinema from New York City.
After seeing the British BBC show 'Look around you', Jo Luijten was inspired by the idea of creating a nonexistent world in the past. Using old software, like QuickBASIC 4.5 and MS-Paint, he created several '80s and '90s versions of contemporary social media and video games. Jo Luijten's girlfriend Kinna McInroe is the voice-over of the 'Wonders of the World Wide Web' videos.
For more information about Squirrel-Monkey, you can visit their website at Squirrel-Monkey.com and also check out their YouTube Channel.
If Angry Birds were an '80s home computer game...

Jonas Eriksson is a Interactive Designer from Sweden that we've previously featured on the blog for his virtual analog apps for the iPad. Now, we're featuring the 76 Synthesizer inspired by synthesizers from the 70's combining playability with style.
Previous Feature: UI Design: The Drum Machine App for iPad
I like to create stuff, from the beginning to the end. That’s all there is to know.
For more information about Jonas Eriksson and his works, you can visit this website at ErikssonJonas.com also follow him on Twitter @imjonas.
All Rights to Jonas Eriksson
All Rights to Jonas Eriksson
All Rights to Jonas Eriksson
All Rights to Jonas Eriksson
All Rights to Jonas Eriksson
All Rights to Jonas Eriksson
All Rights to Jonas Eriksson
All Rights to Jonas Eriksson
All Rights to Jonas Eriksson
All Rights to Jonas Eriksson
All Rights to Jonas Eriksson